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Stripe rust or yellow rust is a serious threat to wheat production worldwide. This disease is caused by the fungus Puccinia striiformis f.sp. tritici (Pst). Currently it is controlled by the use of resistant wheat cultivars and fungicides. However, Pst can rapidly mutate to overcome the plant resistance while the excessive use of fungicides is not environment friendly. Therefore, modern tools and technologies are required to overcome this devastating disease. There are increasing evidences about the up-regulation of the fungal genes involved in the transport of ammonium and sulfur from the host, thiamine biosynthesis and cytochrome P450 enzyme are during Pst infection of wheat. Hence, one of the potential strategies to combat the stripe rust is to target these genes using RNAi technology to produce Pst resistant transgenic wheat. This will increase our understanding about the actual roles of the genes involved in ammonium and sulfur transport, thiamine biosynthesis and cytochrome P450 enzyme. Coupled with RNAi, the use of other novel technologies will be useful in developing multi-disease resistant crops. The present review is focused on the recent research breakthroughs and future challenges and opportunities towards development of rust resistant wheat varieties.

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